The first contest in Cork County since the introduction of
the Ballot took place last week, the result being declared on Monday, as follows :—For Colonel Colthurst, Home-ruler, 8,157 ; for Sir G. Colthurst, Conservative, 2,027,—majority, 6,130. The vastness of the majority is attributed in a great degree to the disgust of the Irish priesthood at the Ministerial announcement that all attempts to solve the University ques- tion had been abandoned. But in Cork County, the majority for the popular party has always been enormous. Even before the days of Home-rule and of the Ballot, in the election of 1868, the result of the poll showed 8,011 for Mr. McCarthy Downing, while the Hon. Robert Boyle obtained only 3,717. The falling-off in the number of Conservative voters is there- fore the chief feature of the new election, not the increase in the number of the popular party. And doubtless with a Con- servative Government that has just refused the one boon hoped for, there was not likely to be any great enthusiasm amongst the Conservative electors.
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